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Christians Have it So Easy!

Didn’t you think this when you became a Christian? You were riding that high of recognizing Christ and believing in Him, and you thought you’d hit the jackpot because Christians can handle anything.

Isn’t it funny that lots of Christians around you didn’t seem to be handling things as well as they should? Did you notice that? Did you put two and two together?

“We are dead to the power of sin,” says Paul in Romans 6:11. Hmmm…hold up…are we? As Christians, we still sin. So how are we dead to it? Are some Christians dead to it and others are less loved by God?

In Living Beyond your Feelings, Joyce Meyer wrote that “none of the fruits of the spirit develop without something to make us exercise them.” The fruits are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control, according to Galatians 5:22-23. So if we exercise these fruits, we will be least likely to sin.

When we become Christians, we assume we just inherit these fruits. We won’t have to work for them. They will come easy to us. Always! Live and learn, right? You quickly find out these fruits are hard work! And we believe we are such failures as Christians, and rather than tell each other our flaws we strive continually to hide them rather than being found out.

As for how we feel about other Christians, there tend to be two categories: those who make excuses for the sins of fellow believers and those who judge fellow believers the harshest.

Neither is the way. Love. Forbearance. And confrontation, when needed, in a loving way. And try to do that with yourself – meaning confront your character flaws and sins in a loving way. Reflect on your progress, reflect on God’s love, and leave the expectations, real or imagined, of others out of it.